Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 11, 2003

The Rangers are like the A's in one respect -- they have an outfielder named Jermaine who wears No. 24 and is from Vacaville.

Jermaine Clark, who attended USF, was a sophomore at Wilbur C. Wood High School when the A's Jermaine Dye was there, both of them played the same three sports, and when Dye graduated, Clark took over the quarterback duties.

"We were compared all the time," Dye said.

"I kind of followed in his footsteps," Clark said. "It's weird we're both here, especially since we're from a town that's so small."

Clark, 26, also played high school baseball against A's reliever Michael Neu, who went to Napa's Vintage High. Wednesday night, Neu made his major- league debut and Clark was one of the three batters he retired in a perfect ninth. Clark, who has yet to record his first big-league hit, pinch-hit for Carl Everett in that inning. "He had the high school scouting report on me," Neu said with a laugh.

Neu recalls Clark as a standout pitcher at Wood High School. "He was the best player in the league," Neu said. "He was definitely 'the guy.' "

Said Clark: "Neu was a short guy on a big, tall mound, because Vintage had a high hill. We had a lot of battles."

BRIEFLY: The A's had some talks with Greg Vaughn about playing for Triple-A Sacramento, which is also Vaughn's hometown, but the outfielder, released recently by Tampa Bay, signed a minor-league deal with Colorado. . . . Oakland opens a three-game series at Anaheim tonight, after sweeping the world champions last weekend. "Anaheim's club is motivated to play every time," A's manager Ken Macha said. "I don't think they need any extra motivation." . . . The matchups for the series: tonight, Tim Hudson (1-0) vs. John Lackey (0-1); Saturday, John Halama (1-0) vs. Mickey Callaway (1-0); Sunday, Barry Zito (2- 0) vs. Ramon Ortiz (1-1). . . . A day after Rich Harden extended his perfect- inning streak to 13 with seven perfect innings for Double-A Midland, John Rheinecker threw 6 2/3 no-hit innings for Midland.